Macclesfield Town were left aggrieved that they were denied a penalty and the
chance to take Wigan Athletic to an FA Cup fourth-round replay.

After the Blue Square Premier side fell behind to an early Jordi Gómez penalty, they had enough goalscoring opportunities to equalise and perhaps the best should have been from their own spot-kick.

Midway through the first half, Waide Fairhurst was running diagonally across Wigan’s 18-yard-box when Román Golobart charged him in the back. The striker fell instantly, Moss Rose roared. This was Macclesfield’s break – but only a corner resulted.

Afterwards, the tweed-wearing Macclesfield manager Steve King, a former hair-model for L’Oreal, revealed that he had planned to wear a white suit had Macclesfield progressed.

“It won’t be coming out now,” he said. “It’s a shame because the penalty was as stonewall as you can get.”

Right behind the incident was Macclesfield midfielder Sam Wedgbury, who was outstanding throughout.

“Sometimes I feel like the bigger teams get the rub of the green,” he said. “You see it on TV, like when Mansfield play Liverpool; Suárez handballs it. If that’s a Mansfield player it probably gets seen.”

In order to preserve their top-flight status, Wigan manager Roberto Martínez is prioritising. Here he made eight changes to the side that lost at home previously to Sunderland.

“The Premier League for us is like playing the FA Cup final every weekend and as a football club we can’t lose that status,” he said.